Superstition and Black Magic

There was a time when Assam was known outside as a land of black magic. There were also popular stories about how certain people in Assam could, by applying magical powers, convert a person into a sheep. Mayong on the other hand continues to remind of the tradition that the village had kept alive for centuries, with an eminent filmmaker even making a documentary film a few years ago to tell the outside world of the practice of magic had once flourished in and around it. This is an age of science and technology, with the human race forging ahead through various scientific inventions and application of technology. India, which used to be once projected by the Western media as a land of snake-charmers and magicians, has already shown the world that it is capable of touching the Moon, and that too in the second attempt itself. Yet, black magic and superstition continues to keep the society under their grip, thus creating barriers between the masses and the world of science. Black magic continues to grip certain communities – particularly the tribal communities and the tea plantation labourer community – with witchcraft and witch-hunting causing a large number of deaths in Assam every year. Though the Assam Police, State Women’s Commission and several other organizations have been running a campaign to put an end to witchcraft, witch-hunting and other superstitious practices, these have not been able to bring about the desired results. Studies on the other hand have shown that lack of healthcare facilities in remote tribal-inhabited areas and poor literacy levels have directly contributed to compelling illiterate and semi-literate people to resort to black magic, witchcraft and other superstitious practices. One recent trend that calls for serious attention is the increased practice of superstitious beliefs among a section of people who want to propitiate the rain gods by organizing frog marriages. Likewise, there have been reports of people in certain places also organizing ‘frog divorces’ in order to stop the rains. These practices, which also occupy space in a section of the media, however neither benefit the society, nor do they speak good of the society as a whole. What most people however have failed to appreciate is numerous irrigation schemes and projects have failed to take off, thus pushing villagers and farmers to resort to superstitions in order to bring down rains so that crop does not fail due to shortage of water. While successive governments must be held responsible for increase in superstitious practices and black magic, the scientific community too must shoulder a portion of the blame for failing to spread a scientific temperament among the people. The media too has a responsibility of informing and educating the masses, and this needs to be carried out on two fronts. One is to discourage such practices like frog marriages and black magic and witchcraft. The other is to popularize scientific practices and ideas and empower the masses to shun such mediaval ideas and begin to live in the age of science and technology. The people of Assam must recall that the visionary Bhupen Hazarika had nearly five decades ago sung that famous song in which he focused on the contemporary scientific advancements including promoting mass communication through satellites in space. ‘It is the jet age, nuclear age, the age of breaking barriers, the age of mass communication through satellites in space,... because ideas and practices of the nineteenth century do not augur well in the twenty-first century,’ he wrote and sang.

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